Dave Mandl
@dmandl.bsky.social
WFMU DJ, writer (The Wire, Los Angeles Review of Books, etc.), bassist, photographer, amateur linguist. Founder, Brooklyn Psychogeographical Association.
Web: dmandl.tumblr.com
Instagram: @dmandl
Playlists from my radio show: https://wfmu.org/playlists/GX
Web: dmandl.tumblr.com
Instagram: @dmandl
Playlists from my radio show: https://wfmu.org/playlists/GX
I want to see a review of an organ concert where they say "He/she pulled out all the stops."
November 25, 2025 at 2:44 PM
I want to see a review of an organ concert where they say "He/she pulled out all the stops."
Hearing again and again from friends whose moderately wealthy parents are having all their money extracted by the elder-care industry, which bilks the elderly out of *tens of thousands* a month, leaving their kids with zero. "They keep you alive long enough to drain all your money." What a racket.
November 25, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Hearing again and again from friends whose moderately wealthy parents are having all their money extracted by the elder-care industry, which bilks the elderly out of *tens of thousands* a month, leaving their kids with zero. "They keep you alive long enough to drain all your money." What a racket.
This continues a long tradition of destroying historical artifacts using faddish new technologies that aren't what they're cracked up to be. Examples: creating crappy digital copies of analog recordings, and storing old newspapers on microfiche. The latter described in the great book "Double Fold."
Somebody posted an old photo in a Facebook local group and asked if anyone could clean it up. Well-meaning people turned to #AI. Lots of responders seemed happy with the results, but this is how you destroy historical records.
November 25, 2025 at 1:40 PM
This continues a long tradition of destroying historical artifacts using faddish new technologies that aren't what they're cracked up to be. Examples: creating crappy digital copies of analog recordings, and storing old newspapers on microfiche. The latter described in the great book "Double Fold."
Join me tonight at 7 p.m. ET for this week's installment of "It's Complicated" (an hour of prog and prog-adjacent music), broadcast live from WFMU's Studio A in Jersey City. Listen anywhere in the universe at wfmu.org or via the free @wfmu.bsky.social app. (Pictured: Shonen Bat.)
November 24, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Join me tonight at 7 p.m. ET for this week's installment of "It's Complicated" (an hour of prog and prog-adjacent music), broadcast live from WFMU's Studio A in Jersey City. Listen anywhere in the universe at wfmu.org or via the free @wfmu.bsky.social app. (Pictured: Shonen Bat.)
This will age well.
Over many interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Michael Scherer about how he plans to remake America’s public-health system. Can he lead the scientific establishment he’s spent much of his life crusading against?
Read more in our new cover story: theatln.tc/q9hXxlbM
Read more in our new cover story: theatln.tc/q9hXxlbM
November 24, 2025 at 11:13 PM
This will age well.
Reposted by Dave Mandl
Karel Martens: Every Day Is a New Day Calendar for 2026
November 24, 2025 at 6:32 PM
Karel Martens: Every Day Is a New Day Calendar for 2026
Heard Sun Ra's "Lanquidity" on my real stereo, with the big speakers and everything, last night, and realized I'd only ever heard it on earbuds, Bluetooth speakers, etc., in the past. Holy cow, what a difference. An indisputable sonic masterpiece.
November 24, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Heard Sun Ra's "Lanquidity" on my real stereo, with the big speakers and everything, last night, and realized I'd only ever heard it on earbuds, Bluetooth speakers, etc., in the past. Holy cow, what a difference. An indisputable sonic masterpiece.
"I finally got a pair of bike gloves."
"How are they different from regular gloves?"
"I bought them at a bike shop."
"How are they different from regular gloves?"
"I bought them at a bike shop."
November 24, 2025 at 1:53 PM
"I finally got a pair of bike gloves."
"How are they different from regular gloves?"
"I bought them at a bike shop."
"How are they different from regular gloves?"
"I bought them at a bike shop."
You know AI poses no dangers at all when insurance companies start excluding it from their coverage.
November 24, 2025 at 12:25 PM
You know AI poses no dangers at all when insurance companies start excluding it from their coverage.
On "Quiet, piggy": The words were bad, obviously, but they're a lot more ominous when you see a video showing how they were spoken. It's easy to picture how this man reportedly told a girl that he was capable of having her whole family killed if she revealed what he'd done.
November 24, 2025 at 12:14 PM
On "Quiet, piggy": The words were bad, obviously, but they're a lot more ominous when you see a video showing how they were spoken. It's easy to picture how this man reportedly told a girl that he was capable of having her whole family killed if she revealed what he'd done.
Delighted to learn that Keyboards, one of my favorite accounts on Mastodon, is here on Bsky also. @keyboards.bsky.social
November 23, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Delighted to learn that Keyboards, one of my favorite accounts on Mastodon, is here on Bsky also. @keyboards.bsky.social
#NowReading Ryan H Walsh, "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968." Walsh goes way beyond that album and even Van Morrison himself to chronicle the bizarre music scene around Boston in the late '60s (some of it involving a hippie cult). Obsessively researched and thrill-packed, a real page-turner.
November 23, 2025 at 5:13 PM
#NowReading Ryan H Walsh, "Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968." Walsh goes way beyond that album and even Van Morrison himself to chronicle the bizarre music scene around Boston in the late '60s (some of it involving a hippie cult). Obsessively researched and thrill-packed, a real page-turner.
Because of some minor dental work I had last week, I need to avoid the upper-right part of my mouth when flossing. When those ten days are up and I can floss all my teeth again there's going to be a party like New York has never seen.
November 23, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Because of some minor dental work I had last week, I need to avoid the upper-right part of my mouth when flossing. When those ten days are up and I can floss all my teeth again there's going to be a party like New York has never seen.
According to this article, "Hangar B at Floyd Bennett Field is open to visitors on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm." Location is all the way at the end of Flatbush Avenue just before the Marine Parkway Bridge. metroairportnews.com/h-a-r-p-the-...
November 22, 2025 at 9:38 PM
According to this article, "Hangar B at Floyd Bennett Field is open to visitors on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm." Location is all the way at the end of Flatbush Avenue just before the Marine Parkway Bridge. metroairportnews.com/h-a-r-p-the-...
I've been to Floyd Bennett Field many times, but I never knew about the H.A.R.P. (Historic Aircraft Restoration Project) in Hangar B. Lots of reconstructed old airplanes and helicopters, and we were even able to climb inside some of them. Thanks Paul Lukas for enlightening me.
November 22, 2025 at 9:02 PM
I've been to Floyd Bennett Field many times, but I never knew about the H.A.R.P. (Historic Aircraft Restoration Project) in Hangar B. Lots of reconstructed old airplanes and helicopters, and we were even able to climb inside some of them. Thanks Paul Lukas for enlightening me.
This reminds me of the old Robert Klein routine where he describes Borscht Belt comedians who tell jokes with a punch line in Yiddish (the point being that the joke is ruined for you if you don't know the Yiddish expression).
November 22, 2025 at 12:37 PM
This reminds me of the old Robert Klein routine where he describes Borscht Belt comedians who tell jokes with a punch line in Yiddish (the point being that the joke is ruined for you if you don't know the Yiddish expression).
I've always been intrigued by this building on Ave. T. I don't know of any other buildings in Brooklyn with lettering like this. Kind of a Miami vibe IMO.
November 22, 2025 at 12:28 PM
I've always been intrigued by this building on Ave. T. I don't know of any other buildings in Brooklyn with lettering like this. Kind of a Miami vibe IMO.
"I can't imagine what I ever did to deserve her. Did I rescue a bunch of orphans from a burning building in a previous life?"
November 22, 2025 at 10:50 AM
"I can't imagine what I ever did to deserve her. Did I rescue a bunch of orphans from a burning building in a previous life?"
The interesting thing about the plastic sign letters used here is that there are ligatures for "is," "co," and "un." How typical is that? And how many other ligatures are there in this set?
November 22, 2025 at 12:56 AM
The interesting thing about the plastic sign letters used here is that there are ligatures for "is," "co," and "un." How typical is that? And how many other ligatures are there in this set?
Talking to someone in her 60s, Jewish, b. USSR, she made a remark with a clear Yiddish/Jewish inflection. Is that specifically a Jewish-English thing she picked up from Jews in NY, or do those inflections exist even in her native Russian, meaning they date back to earlier Jewish roots? #linguistics
November 21, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Talking to someone in her 60s, Jewish, b. USSR, she made a remark with a clear Yiddish/Jewish inflection. Is that specifically a Jewish-English thing she picked up from Jews in NY, or do those inflections exist even in her native Russian, meaning they date back to earlier Jewish roots? #linguistics
V.F.W. Post 107 & Auxiliary, Gerritsen Beach.
November 21, 2025 at 2:02 PM
V.F.W. Post 107 & Auxiliary, Gerritsen Beach.
The rich and powerful have accepted the country going full Nazi because the market is skyrocketing and profits are way up. When the inevitable market crash* comes, the profits will be gone and all they'll have is the Nazism. Womp womp.
*I'm not hoping for this. Poor people will be hurt most of all.
*I'm not hoping for this. Poor people will be hurt most of all.
November 21, 2025 at 1:03 PM
The rich and powerful have accepted the country going full Nazi because the market is skyrocketing and profits are way up. When the inevitable market crash* comes, the profits will be gone and all they'll have is the Nazism. Womp womp.
*I'm not hoping for this. Poor people will be hurt most of all.
*I'm not hoping for this. Poor people will be hurt most of all.